Fungicides for control of agricultural diseases may be used for preventative applications, for example, as a seed treatment, or for curative applications, applied to growing plants already infected with a fungal disease. An efficacious curative fungicide may completely cure the disease, that is, rid the plant of the fungal infection, or it may alleviate the infection to such a degree that plant growth and/or crop yield are not unacceptably inhibited by the disease.
Other carboxamide fungicides are known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 4,742,074, issued May 3, 1988, to Nishida et al., discloses various N-(substituted-indanyl)pyrazole-4-carboxamides useful as fungicides for various agronomic diseases. Included is 1-methyl-3-trifluoromethyl-N-(1,1,3-trimethylindane-4-yl)pyrazole-4-carbox amide, described as useful against rice sheath blight (preventative and curative), brown rust of wheat (curative), and apple scab disease (preventative). However, there remains a need in the art for superior fungicides, particularly for curative applications for which a high level of systemic activity is highly advantageous.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide compounds having a broad spectrum of activity against fungal diseases of plants. It is a further object of this invention to provide compounds having a high level of effectiveness in curing fungal diseases in affected plants. It is another object of this invention to provide compounds that readily move through a diseased plant after application to another part of th e plant, e.g., its leaves, fruit, or stems. Further, it is an object of this invention to provide methods of preventing and, more importantly, curing fungal diseases of plants at comparatively lower application rates, resulting in lower residues in the plants and the environment.